Granular material handling device



Feb. 16, 1954 Filed Aug. 17, 1951 FILE. 1

B. S. SNOW GRANULAR MATERIAL. HANDLING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jarfon: 5\srzozz/ Feb. 16, 1954 Filed Aug. 17, 1951 FIE- E B. s. SNOW 2,669,488

GRANULAR MATERIAL HANDLING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 16,1954 GRANUIJAR MATERIAL HANDLING DEVICE Bartonrsasnom Chicago, Ill;,\assignortto '1. W.

Snow-Construction Company, Inc., a corporationof Illinois 1ApplicafidliAuguit'll 1951, Serial N0. 242,225

svfilaimsw (Cl. 302-41) This invention relates to La. devices'fontransporting-granular material andhmorexparticularly' toua mobile unitfor blowing.suchmaterialirom.

one. place to-another. 0

There ware many industrial uses of granular material handling equipmentsuchaas the .handling of dry sandin railroad yards for use in both:steam and diesel loco-motives. The sand is an especially dried sandwhich is generallystored in. bins buildingsaor tanks: (until itis. to beused. 1

This sand is transported to the railroad yardin boxcars and the use of.this invention isparticularly directedto the unloading ,of such boxcars.

The primary object of this invention is. to provide aneffective,inexpensive device for transportingygranular material with a minimum of.

manual labor.

Another objector the invention is to provide; a device fortransportinggranular. material.

which is operated by compressed air.

Arfurther object is the provision of a device of the characterdescribedwhich may be used to unload a storage bin, boxcar or. the like, of practically all granular material containedtherein.

One embodiment of the invention is illustrated in. the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Fig. .l. is a side elevational view of the device with certainparts cutaway to show the interior thereonand Fig. 2 is a top planviewof the .de-Vice shownin Fig. 1 asviewed from a plane .paral lelto the screwconveyor.

Dry sandras used to fill the sandboxes 011000,

motives mustbe transported or carried insome mannerfromboxcars inwhichitis .supplied to therailroads toastorage facility. Ordlnarily a boxcarwill contain about 40. tons of sand which willbeusedfromtime to timeinthe locomotives, with the storagefacility being used to store the sanduntil it is actually used. Compressedair isusually available aroundrailroad yards and provides an economical and readily available sourceof motive power for conveying the sand from one place toanotherthi'oughpipe lines. One system for conducting sand to a storagefacility,and. alsofrom the facility to locomotive filling tanks is shownin my copending application. Serial No. 125,908, filed November 7, 1949,now Patent No. 2,614,002. The system therein disclosed utilizesasandpressure drum for blowing the sand from one place to another.

.In the past a great amount ofhand laborphas been:used for bringing thedry. sand from a boxcarzto .thetsand drum or other storagecdevice; Thesandwas generally shoveledinto awheelbarrowandrmanually moved out of theboxcartto the drum. The present invention provides a device-:forautomatically conveying the sandfrom the :boxcar to the drum from which.it. may then.

be transported entirely by .air pressure in pipe lines to otherlocations. The device picks up the a sand by meansof a screw conveyorwhich'delivers it to a hopper, and. an air jet is used to blow thesand-through a discharge line to a point distant from the boxcar.

The device in its preferred form, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, has amain frame utilizing a hopper 3 made of cylindrical pipe with wheels 4securedto the lower portion thereof for mov ingthe device from place toplace. The hopper 3 is closed on its bottom end by a plate 5 and maybe-open upwardly or closed by a top plate 6 which extends;rearwardlyfrom the hopper 3 andjoins rear framing plate I to which. handle 8 isattached. flanges 9 of a;discharge nozzle [0. The nozzle [0 has an outercylindrical casing II and an inner liner l2 telescoped therein to reduceabrasive wear ofthe granular material thereon. I'he structure thus fardescribed comprises the base frame of the device.

Sand or other granular material is conveyed into the hopper 3 by meansof a screw conveyor having a helical screw member [3 mounted looselywithin a cylindrical housing l4 secured to the front of the hopper 3 andextending upwardly ing supports a scoop H which has parallel sideslflrjoinedby a-bottom IE] to form an upwardly open generallyrectangularscoop. A screen 20 l is positioned over the open end of the scoop toexclude-material which will not pass the screen.

This scoop issecured tothe housing I4 1by co-. operating brackets 2iand. 22' which arebolted; or otherwiseesecured to thehousing The bottoml91of the scoop is slightly curved so that the.

device mayrest on-the wheels A and the bottom In this manner the devicemay be of the scoop, pushed from place to place within a boxcar andclean out substantially all of the sand therein.

The operating mechanism of the device secures its motive power fromcompressed air supplied through a small air supply line 25 which con-.ducts' airl-throughan inlet line 25 to the inlet of an air motor 2?,Ordinarily air is available The plate 1 is secured between the.

around railroad yards at about 90 p. s. i. g. and such air may be used.The outlet 28 from the air motor exhausts air through a line 29 to thelower portion of the hopper 3 and through a jet nozzle 38 directed intothe discharge port 10. A discharge line Si is connected to the flange 9on the discharge port Hi so that the nozzle 30 may blow sand from thehopper through the discharge line 3| to a point outside of the boxcar.

The inlet and outlet to the air motor are provided with suitable valves32 and 33 and a bypass line 34 extends between the inlet and outlet tothe air motor to permit the operator of the device to direct air fromthe supply line 25 to the nozzle 39 without passing through the airmotor. A valve 35 in the by-pass line has a simple push release controlwhereby the operator may quickly and easily permit air to take a directpath to the nozzle.

The air motor 2? is provided with a small sheave 38 and the shaft I ofthe screw is provided with a larger sheave 31 connected with the airmotor by a V-belt 38 for driving the conveyor. When operating with airat 90 p. s. i. g., an air motor of about 900 R. P. M. capacity, arrangedto drive the conveyor screw at about 250 R. P. M. Will exhaust air atabout p. s. i. g. to the nozzle 30. Under such conditions about 4 to 5tons of sand may be conveyed by the device in one hours time. Theconveyor should be driven at such a rate as to keep sand within thehopper at least to the conveyor level so that the jet will not blow backinto the hopper rather than into the discharge port. If the devicebecomes clogged, the air motor will slow down and the operator may thenpermit some air to pass through the by-pass line 36 directly to thenozzle to clear out the clogging.

The device is rather light in weight and easily handled by a single manwithin a boxcar. Sufiicient lengths of hose or pipes should be providedto permit the discharge line 3| to remain as nearly straight as possiblesince the sand may more easily be conveyed by the jet if the dischargeline is straight. While the invention has been shown and described asembodied in a device particularly adapted to handle sand, it will bereadily understood that the device is capable of handling other granularmaterials as well.

The foregoing detailed description is given for clearness ofunderstanding only, and no unnecessary limitations should be understoodtherefrom, for some modifications will be obvious to those skilled inthe art.

I claim:

1. A granular material handling device, for transporting material,comprising: a material receiving hopper having a material discharge portat its lower portion communicating with a discharge line; a materialconveyor extending forwardly of and into the upper portion of the hopperfor feeding material into the hopper; an air motor on the device drivingsaid conveyor; a supply line of compressed air connected to said motor;an air jet at said discharge port directed into said discharge line; andan air line connecting said jet with the exhaust of said air motor.

2. A device as specified in claim 1, in which Wheels are mounted on thehopper to facilitate movement of the device, and the front end of theconveyor is provided with a scoop to direct material into the conveyor.

3. A sand handling device, comprising: a sand receiving hopper having adischarge line connected with its lower portion; a screw conveyorextending into the upper portion of the hopper and forwardly therefromfor feeding sand into the hopper; an air motor on the device driving thescrew conveyor and having a supply line of compressed air connected tothe motor; an air jet within the hopper directed into said dischargeline; and an air line connecting the exhaust of the air motor with theair jet.

4. A device as specified in claim 3, wherein the screw conveyor has ahousing opening into the hopper a distance above the discharge line notsubstantially less than the height of sand required to produce a headand provides a head of sand above the jet equal to the jet air pressure.

5. A device as specified in claim 3, wherein a by-pass line connects theair supply line with the air discharge line from the motor and a valveis positioned in said by-pass line whereby additional air may bedirected to the jet.

6. A device as specified in claim 3, wherein wheels are provided on thedevice, and a scoop is provided on the forward end of the conveyor fordirecting sand into the screw, said device resting on the wheels andscoop whereby the device may be rolled from place to place and the scooppushed into the sand to be moved.

7. A granular material handling device, comprising: an upwardlyextending hopper having a laterally extending material discharge port inits bottom portion communicating with a discharge line; a screw conveyorextending forwardly out of the hopper above the outlet, said conveyorhaving a housing in which the screw is adapted to turn with the innerend of the screw being positioned within the hopper; a scoop on theforward end of the conveyor adapted to direct material to the screw; acompressed air line; an air motor connected to said air line and drivingthe screw at a rate to maintain material in the hopper; an air jetdirected into the discharge port for blowing material from the hopperinto said discharge line, said air jet being connected with the exhaustfrom said air motor.

8. A mobile granular material handling device, comprising: a closedreceiving hopper having wheels mounted thereon; a screw conveyor mountedin a cylindrical housing secured to the upper part of the hopper andextending forwardly of the hopper; a scoop on the forward end of theconveyor housing for directing granular material to the conveyor; asource of compressed air; an air motor on the device coupled with theconveyor for driving the screw thereof, said air source being connectedwith the motor; a material discharge line near the bottom of the hopper;an air jet within the hopper directed into said discharge line, theexhaust from said air motor being connected with the air jet for blowingmaterial from the hopper through the discharge line; and a by-pass airline from said air supply line to the air jet having a valve controllingadmission of additional air to the jet.

BARTON S. SNOW.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 824,461 Zamel June 26, 1906 985,211 Selden Feb. 28, 19111,411,072 Wagstaif Mar. 28, 1922 1,860,127 Bernert May 24, 19321,991,403 McManamna Feb. 19, 1935

